Student arrested in Chandigarh for online fraud

Chandigarh, Jan 9 (IANS) A 20-year-old student has been arrested on the charge of using credit cards of other people for online shopping, a police officer said here Friday.The student of hotel management, Sahil Sharma, is the son of a senior Haryana government official. His mother is a leading architect here.

Sahil was arrested late Thursday evening after a joint operation was launched by the cyber crime investigation cell of Chandigarh and Karnataka police.

“Sahil Sharma used credit card numbers of people staying in the US and the UK to make online purchases. He usually bought expensive mobile handsets,” Deputy Superintendent of Police (crime) K.I.P. Singh told IANS.

He said Sahil ordered three mobile phones worth Rs.150,000 from a Karnataka-based online portal of gift deliveries clickhubli.com.

Sahil, who was in a Gurgaon hotel in August 2008, allegedly wrote in an e-mail that he was Reji Abraham, a resident of the US. The mobiles were delivered to him at the hotel.

But when the amount was deducted from the account of real Abraham, he filed a complaint with the company saying that he never placed any order.

Enthused by his success, Sahil again placed orders with the same portal in the name of Shiela Lane from Britain and Kerrie Sheldon from the US, the police alleged.

He gave the addresses of his college and home for the delivery of ordered mobile phones.

“We sent a decoy courier boy to make a delivery at Sahil’s residence in Sector 23 and caught him red-handed while accepting the parcel,” Singh said.

The owner of the portal had approached the Karnataka police Dec 31, which laid the trap jointly with Chandigarh police and nabbed him.

Sahil worked for an international call centre in 2006 where he used to sell mobile phones to international customers and note their credit card numbers for the company’s record.

From there he managed to get these credit card numbers for fraudulent use, Singh said.